The decision of the General Court of the European Union (TGUE) to ratify the withdrawal of immunity for Carles Puigdemont, Toni Comín and Clara Ponsatí has ??affected the independence movement. Pending the last judicial instance, that of the Court of Justice of the European Union, Oriol Junqueras, president of ERC, has branded the resolution as “unfair”. “Freedom must be guaranteed to the maximum for those who have not committed any crime,” the Republican assured this morning at an informative breakfast in Barcelona Tribuna.
In this sense, Junqueras has stated that calling and holding a referendum “is not a crime.” “And it is not an opinion, it is a fact, because it is not in the Penal Code,” he recalled. In fact, he has remarked that the legislature annulled the penalties for calling an illegal referendum in 2005. “The anomaly is in the Judiciary concentrated in the Supreme Court, which decides to sentence people based on things that are not crimes” , has reasoned. “It may be something that some do not like, but it is not in the Penal Code,” he added.
The president of ERC has also widely criticized the measure proposed by the leader of Sumar, Yolanda Díaz, to allocate 20,000 euros to young people who turn 18. For Junqueras, it is “much more effective and equitable” a proposal such as the one carried out by the Ministry of Research and Universities directed by Quim Nadal to reduce the cost of university enrollment by 2,000 euros per course.
“Distributing 20,000 euros without taking into account the income of the beneficiary families is extremely regressive,” said the Republican. Instead, he has insisted that the Government’s measure favors the construction of wealth, as well as the free I-2.
Sumar has not been left alone in the reproaches. Junqueras has put those of Díaz and the PSOE in the same bag when he has lowered his ability to stop the extreme right. For the Republican, they are not a real containment dam against the extreme right and the “increasingly extreme” right (the PP). So much so that he has described socialists and purples as simple “volunteers” for this task.
“They should know that many of those who declare themselves volunteers do not really have any scruples to agree” with the PP “to obtain, for example, the Barcelona City Council.” “And not only on one occasion, but on two, and agreeing with a xenophobic extreme right like Manuel Valls”, he added in reference to the votes that the formation of the former French prime minister gave to Ada Colau and Jaume Collboni to avoid a municipal government led by ERC, with Ernest Maragall at the helm.
Nor has Junqueras been spared from remembering that in 2016 the PSOE, with its abstention, facilitated the investiture of Mariano Rajoy as Prime Minister. “We have not done it and we never will,” stressed the president of ERC. All this to reason that, in his opinion, the commitment of the PSOE and Sumar is “mild, punctual”, while that of the Republicans is “firm”.
